This blog covers the First Lady, Sasha, Malia, First Granny (Mrs. Robinson), Bo, the new puppy Sunny, and the social side of the President. We will be following Mrs. Obama after she leaves the White House!!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

First Lady -- Guests at the State of the Union

The White House announced 23 guests, including three from the D.C. area: Clayton Armstrong, a native of Washington who was captain of the football team at Ballou High School; Janell Holloway, another native and graduate of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, who is now at Harvard; and Rebecca Knerr, of Chantilly, who representing her husband, Captain II Joseph Knerr, the Task Force Leader of Fairfax County's Virginia Task Force 1 serving in Haiti.

Among the other guests are:

-Ambassador Raymond Joseph of Haiti;-Chris Lardner, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who wrote a letter to the president about her family's financial crisis after suffering a severe credit card interest rate hike;-Tina Dixon of Allentown, PA, who got a job as a technical partner trainee with the Lehigh Valley Health Network after going through a job retraining program;-Mayor Mick Cornett of Oklahoma City;-Don Karner of Phoenix, whose electric transportation engineering company received money through the Recovery Act;-Janell Kellett of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, a lead volunteer for the Wisconsin Army National Guard;-Gabriela Farfan of Madison, Wisconsin, a 19-year-old geology major;-Anita Maltbia of Kansas City, Missouri, who runs an urban enviromental program;-Cindy Parker-Martinez of Belle Isle, Florida, whose family was denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions;-retired Army Specialist Scott Vycital of Fort Collins, Colorado, who began a new career with the Federal Highway Administration after serving in Iraq;-Ping Fu of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, who is an active participant in the SBA's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program;-Julia Frost of Jacksonville, NC, who is receiving help from the GI bill to advance her education;-Jeffrey Brown of Philadelphia, who is CEO of Brown's Super Stores, Inc.;-Trevor Yager of Indianapolis, a small-business owner who supports the Recovery Act-Juan Yepez of Lawrence, Massachusetts, a small-business owner who employs first-generation Americans-Li Boyton of Bellaire, Texas, an 18-year-old who has developed a bacteria bio-sensor to help make drinking water safe around the world-Mark Todd of Killeen, Texas, the lead police officer of the military working dog branch at Fort Hood-Sergeant First Class Andrew Rubin of Savannah, Georgia, who has served a combined six combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan;-Deborah Powell of Hugo, Oklahoma, who is a Native American Development Specialist for the Housing Authority of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma;-Kimberley Munley of Killeen, Texas, who is a federal police officer serving on the Special Reaction Team for the Fort Hood Police Department;

In addition, Phil Schiliro, the head of legislative affairs at the White House, and Tina Tchen, the director of the office of Public Engagement, will be in the box alongside Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

About the "Let's Move" Campaign

"In the end, as First Lady, this isn’t just a policy issue for me. This is a passion. This is my mission. I am determined to work with folks across this country to change the way a generation of kids thinks about food and nutrition."